The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation » Seminar ”Diplomacy and the Holocaust”http://www.raoulwallenberg.net
Just another WordPress weblogMon, 30 Mar 2015 14:39:31 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.2A victory for the Righteous Among the Nationshttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/a-victory-for-the-righteous-among-the-nations/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/a-victory-for-the-righteous-among-the-nations/#commentsTue, 26 Aug 2014 15:46:56 +0000helenahttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=1101050201The International Wallenberg Foundation opposes honoring officials who most certainly did not go above the call of duty in WWII

In reference to the report, Wallenberg Foundation off the hook in Argentina libel case, published on 21 August, we would like to stress that the ruling by the Supreme Court of Argentina overturned a judgment in favor of a relative of Luis H. Irigoyen, a diplomat stationed at the Argentine Embassy in Berlin during WWII. The relative sued the Wallenberg Foundation after it transmitted scholarly and journalistic works about Irigoyen and the role he played vis a vis Argentinean Jews persecuted by the Nazis.

This affair has its roots in two previous developments in which the Wallenberg Foundation was involved.

One of them was the “Directive 11”, an “strictly confidential” order issued in 1938 by the then Foreign Minister of Argentina, Jose Maria Cantilo, whereby all the Argentinian embassies and consulates around the world were instructed to deny visas to “undesirables or to individuals who were expelled from their countries”, a clear reference to the Jews, among other persecuted. The Directive 11, an equivalent of a death warrant, was revoked in an official ceremony that took place at the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires, on 9 June 2005. The ceremony was presided by President Nestor Kirchner and his Foreign Minister, Rafael Bielsa.

A few days earlier Minister Bielsa had ordered the removal of a plaque that was placed inside the Argentinian Foreign Ministry Building in homage to twelve Argentinian diplomats that allegedly have worked in favor of persecuted Jews in Europe.The plaque had been unveiled back in 2001 by the Foreign Minister, Adalberto Rodriguez Giavarini, in a ceremony attended by representatives of the Embassy of Israel as well as of other major Jewish organizations. The list of names included in the plaque was provided by the Commission for the Clarification of Nazi Activities in Argentina (CEANA), created in 1997 by President Carlos Menem.

The Wallenberg Foundation had been voicing its unequivocal objection to this tribute, stating that not only was there no evidence that the honored diplomats went beyond their call of duty but, in other cases, e.g. Irigoyen, rather quite the contrary, according to Professor Haim Avni’s book “Argentina & the Jews. A history of Jewish immigration”.This legal struggle was crowned with success and debunks stories about “alleged” saviors. It is not a matter of money. Far beyond that, what was at stake was the legacy of the Righteous among the Nations, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

]]>http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/a-victory-for-the-righteous-among-the-nations/feed/0Exemplary decision of the Argentine Supreme Court in favor of freedom of Speech. Even the harshest criticism has constitutional protectionhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/exemplary-decision-of-the-argentine-supreme-court-in-favor-of-freedom-of-speech-even-the-harshest-criticism-has-constitutional-protection/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/exemplary-decision-of-the-argentine-supreme-court-in-favor-of-freedom-of-speech-even-the-harshest-criticism-has-constitutional-protection/#commentsWed, 20 Aug 2014 14:16:24 +0000helenahttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=1101050171The Wallenberg Foundation must not indemnify grandson of Argentine diplomat accused of letting Argentine Jews die by the hands of the Nazis during WWII

Argentine Supreme Court of Justice overturned a judgment in favor of the grandson of a diplomat stationed at the Argentine Embassy in Berlin during the Nazi regime. After the “International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation” had accused the diplomat of letting Argentine Jews die, the diplomat´s grandson sued the Foundation for damages. Now, the Highest Court held that “it cannot be deemed to be a gratuitous insult; on the contrary, it is a harsh questioning, of a kind not unusual in historical disputes.”

Juan Carlos Hipólito Irigoyen, grandson of Luis Hernán Irigoyen, former diplomat stationed at the Argentine Embassy in Berlin during the Nazi regime, sued “The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation” for damages. The defendant had stated that the plaintiff’s grandfather was “responsible for letting approximately 100 Argentine Jews die in the gas chambers.”

With the suport of attorneys Israel Imar, Paul Warszawski, Carlos Raúl Sánchez and Gustavo A. Bossert as counsels, the Wallenberg Foundation appealed the decision before the Nation’s Supreme Court of Justice, which with the vote of five of its six Justices, Ricardo Lorenzetti, Elena Highton de Nolasco, Enrique Petracchi, Eugenio Zaffaroni and Juan Carlos Maqueda, upheld the appeal and vacated the prior judgment.

Likewise, in a concurrent opinion, Justice Zaffaroni pointed out that there was no proof whatsoever of the moral harm that defendant plaintiff Irigoyen alleged to have suffered from the criticism to his grandfather, and that merely citing the family´s honor in cases of kinship more remote than the parent-child relationship or fraternal relationship, cannot be sufficient to prove moral harm … otherwise, historical revisionism would become justiciable matter, with the resulting limitation on the freedom of historical research.

The Justices explained that their judgment was “grounded on content taken from the Wallenberg Foundation web page”. The Justices added that “It is plain to see that in many cases it is material taken from different media, with express acknowledgment of the source and deference to the original format.”

In the opinion of the Highest Court, when admitting the complaint in question, the lower courts ignored the legal doctrine whereby “repeating someone else’s words does not result in civil or criminal liability. The content of the information should be attributed to the relevant source, and whatever said source states, should be documented in a substantially accurate transcription.”

Thus, in reference to the Court’s case law in cases like “Dahlgren” or “Ramos”, the Justices recalled that “if the informant could be held liable for the mere fact of repeating someone else’s words, purportedly detrimental to third parties, it is clear that the informant would act as a fearful filter and evaluator of information, rather than its uninhibited channel. That would restrict the amount of information received by people and, at the same time, give the informant the improper role of a censor.”

However, not all claims were taken from texts; some statements were directly attributed to the Foundation, revolving around news of an Argentine Foreign Minister who “ordered the removal of a plaque that had been put up at the (Foreign) Ministry as a tribute to Argentine diplomats who showed solidarity with victims of Nazism.”

“Said plaque included, among others, the name Luis H. Irigoyen, whom the text of the Wallenberg Foundation described as “accessory to the murder of one hundred Argentine Jews during the Holocaust,” mentioned the Court.

In this regard, the Justices understood that such an expression “is one of those in which the priority is not given to the statement of facts, but rather, ideas, opinions, critical or value judgments and, why not, conjectures and hypotheses are what predominate, in accordance with the distinction, between one and the other type of expression, upheld by this Court.”

“Having described Luis H. Irigoyen as an “accessory to” or “responsible for” the disappearance of Argentine Jews in Nazi Germany represents a grave insult related to Irigoyen’s conduct during those years; however, it cannot be deemed to be a gratuitous insult; on the contrary, it is a harsh questioning of a non kind that is not unusual kind in historical disputes.”

“The same could be said of the invoked “complicity” of the plaintiff s grandfather with the Nazi crimes of the Nazi period. The arguments waged in a debate should not be examined under a judicial framework. This would lead to an unfortunate confusion of contexts.” the judgment concluded, making it very clear that, for the Court, such expressions are protected by the Constitution.”

]]>http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/exemplary-decision-of-the-argentine-supreme-court-in-favor-of-freedom-of-speech-even-the-harshest-criticism-has-constitutional-protection/feed/0Controversy over the diplomatic role during Nazismhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/controversy-over-diplomatic/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/controversy-over-diplomatic/#commentsMon, 01 Aug 2005 03:00:00 +0000adminhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=2527Last 16 May Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa ordered the removal of a plaque that was placed inside the Argentine Chancellery in homage to twelve Argentine diplomats that allegedly have worked in favor of persecuted Jews while fulfilling their duty in different capitals of Europe.

The plaque had been unveiled in 2001 by former Foreign Minister, Adalberto Rodríguez Giavarini, together with the then Israeli Ambassador, Benjamín Oron, the President of the Latin American Jewish Congress, Manuel Tenenbaum, and other leaders of the Jewish community.

The list was made by the now questioned Commission of Enquiry into Activities of Nazism in Argentina (CEANA), created in 1997 and, until 2001, funded with generous slush funds of the Foreign Ministry.

Since the plaque withdrawal several letters have been sent to Clarín on behalf and against some of the controversial diplomats.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation had been disputing this homage for three years. The organization stated that in most of the cases the diplomats did nothing that went beyond the call of duty. The diplomats of the plaque are: José Angel Caballero, Juan Giraldes, Luis H. Irigoyen, Luis Luti, Héctor Méndez, José Ponti, Federico Fried, Jacobo Laub, Roberto Levillier, Alberto Saubidet, León Schapiera y Miguel Angel de Gamas.

Moreover, investigations of journalist Uki Goñi and Israeli Professor Haim Avni indicate that Irigoyen -Second Secretary in Berlin in 1943- refused entry permits to one hundred Argentine Jews who Germany intended to repatriate to Argentina. Finally, all of them died in the extermination camps.

Baruj Tenenbaum, President of the Wallenberg Foundation, said to Clarín that he had searched among the more than 20,000 people considered to be ”saviors” of Jews registered by The Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem (top authority on this subject); he did not find not even one Argentine who emulated the deeds of Swedish diplomat Wallenberg, or of Brazilian Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, among many others that, sometimes risking their own lives, offered help to Jews.

However, businessman Erwin Auspitz sent a letter to this paper this week reminding that diplomat Giraldes, Argentine Consul in Viena in 1938, helped his parents, his sister and a grandmother to obtain transit visas yet knowing that the family intended to stay illegally in Buenos Aires. Egon Strauss, another reader, agreed when he claimed that Giraldes helped him in Viena, letting pass his fake identifications with which he was trying to travel to Buenos Aires.

Irigoyen’s descendants, Edelmiro Solari Irigoyen and Mercedes Irigoyen de Campbell, emphatically denied the Foundation’s claim and asserted that diplomat Irigoyen ”did constant and successful efforts” in order to save Jews, this attitude was recognised -they say without offering evidences- by figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt.

The seriousness of this matter lays on the fact that there is no official research that supports with facts the mentions in the commemorative plaque.

Translation: Florencia Gersberg

]]>http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/controversy-over-diplomatic/feed/0Argentina removes an old stainhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/argentina-removes-old-stain/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/argentina-removes-old-stain/#commentsFri, 10 Jun 2005 03:00:00 +0000adminhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=2416Kirchner voids a regulation issued in 1938 which prevented the saving of thousands of Jewish people

In July 1938, a year before the beginning of the Second World War, the embassies of Argentina in Europe received a secret communication -Circular number 11- by which they were ordered to deny entry visas to thouse who wanted to flee their country ”or those who had abandoned it on account of having been declared undesirable or had been expelled”. This order meant certain death for thousands of Jews who could not leave Germany and were later sent to the extermination camps. However, as happened with other written evidences related to the Holocaust, these documents vanished once the war was over and until the year 1998, when a forgotten copy was traced at the Argentine Embassy in Sweden. Now this secret order had been solemnly voided at Government House by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rafael Bielsa, in the presence of President Nestor Kirchner.

After the victory of the Allies, Argentina became a haven for persons who had served Adolf Hitler’s regime. Several Jewish organizations have endeavoured to find out whether this collaboration had gone beyond the granting of safe havens. Thus, during the term of Menem’s presidency his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Guido di Tella, set up the Commission of Enquiry into the Activities of Nazism in Argentina (CEANA). One of the researchers traced the document that involved the 1938 Government in the denial of help for persecuted people, but the Menem Administration decided to file away the case and keep its contents secret. The researcher quit the commission and since then the Wallenberg Foundation -named after the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews and later disappeared after being arrested by the Soviets- demanded the annulment of a decree which obviously was no longer in force, but had left thousands of persons devoid of protection.

The stance of the Argentine authorities was to deny the existence of the circular. ”They used to say that we were struggling against windmills and that antisemitism was non-existent. Even the files disappeared from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. But in the end it could be located”, stated Baruch Tenembaum, president of the Wallenberg Foundation, for whom it is quite clear that in times of the war ”Argentina was a nest of Nazis”. Bielsa admitted yesterday that the original order had ”gone astray” for two years but was finally found in another file where it had been hidden. ”The Peronist and Radical Governments had refused to annul the decree because doing so would have implied admitting its existence”, stressed Mr Tenembaum.

To make things more entangled, in July 2001, under the Radical Government of Fernando de la Rua, a plaque was placed on the front wall of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs to honor 12 Argentine diplomats ”who became prominent during the Third Reich regime for their solidarity and humane behaviour towards the victims of Nazism”, as read the text of the plaque. But in the light of the recently found document they did not act in that way, and even one of them was directly responsible for the fate of 100 Arentine Jews who had asked to return to their country and could not do so.

Antisemitism is not a minor matter in a country where at least 250,000 Jews are living, a country that suffered the worst two terrorists attacks in its history. In 1992 a bomb destroyed the Israeli Embassy, provoking 29 deaths. Two years later a car bomb destroyed the Jewish Welfare Center (AMIA) , which brought about the loss of 85 lives. ”I would like to point out the attitude of the Government, which has withdrawn the plaque and voided the circular”, said Jorge Kirszenbaum, president of the Federation of Argentine Jewish Associations (DAIA).Translation: Josefina Prytyka

]]>http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/argentina-removes-old-stain/feed/0Argentina eliminates two unfortunate remains of its pasthttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/argentina-eliminates-two/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/argentina-eliminates-two/#commentsFri, 10 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000adminhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=2419On Wednesday June 8th, 2005, a ceremony headed by national president Néstor Kirchner in the Salón Sur of Government House, the decree withdrawing a secret, strictly confidential document that was deeply discriminatory and had been hidden for sixty six years.

It was about secret law number 11, one of the very most secret under the custody of the Argentine State, an order signed in 1938 by then Foreign Minister José María Cantilo and sent to each Argentinean delegation around the world, with the purpose of preventing Jews and other people persecuted by the Nazis from entering Argentina.

From New York, Baruch Tenembaum, founder of the International Foundation remarked: ”Secret law number 11 was an incompatible element with the human values that must prevail in a democratic government.”

”The Wallenberg Foundation headed the requests for the repeal of this norm”, said daily newspaper Clarín, one of the most widely sold in Latin-America.

”Derogation has been requested for years by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation”, newspaper Infobae informed.

On the ceremony president Kirchner and Foreign Minister Bielsa were together with Interior Minister Aníbal Fernández and Natalio Wengrower, vice president of the Wallenberg Foundation also attended by Beatriz Gurevich and journalist Uki Goñi.

Aníbal Fernández had taken interest in this case in April. After three years of complaints and negotiations, the Wallenberg Foundation sent a stern letter in which they denounced the existence of a plaque that appeared in the Foreign Affairs building honoring twelve Argentine diplomats for their alleged solidarity during the Holocaust. The plaque, unveiled in July 2001 by Foreign Minister Adalberto Rodríguez Giavarini, included the name of Luis H. Irigoyen, a diplomat who during his mission in Berlin in 1943 had ignored the fate of 100 Argentine Jews that the Nazi Regime offered to repatriate to Argentina, as a good will gesture towards a country with whom they maintained excellent relations. According to investigations carried out by the Foundation, the remaining eleven members of the foreign service did not deserve the homage either since they had only assisted Argentine citizens in Europe during the years of war.

In his speech, Wengrower emphasized that, ”during more than three years the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation intensely negotiated, despite the opposition and indifference of many, the removal of this unjustified homage and the annulment of secret law number 11, that was the direct or indirect cause, of an unknown quantity of deaths whom we will never know. Justice has been finally made after sixty six years.”

Secret law number 11 was discovered in 1998 by the Argentine researcher Beatriz Gurevich. When she reported her discovery to the Foreign Affairs Ministry the document was filed and presumably destroyed. Only when Wallenberg Foundation decided to make public a copy on it’s web site, was when Circular Number 11 started to be known both in Argentina and around the world.

”I would like to point out the honest and sustained relationship between the Wallenberg Foundation and the citizenry. Not only do I want to pay homage to the talent and exhaustive research, but also to the perseverance and insistence”, Foreign Minister Bielsa said.

”When I took the decision of writing the derogation order, I obviously asked for the original… but it had disappeared, it was not there”, Bielsa explained.

”I am disappointed with myself for not having done this one year ago, and at the same time, I am thrilled for doing it today,” Bielsa ended while addressing Wengrower.

Many people date Argentina’s problems with the rest of the world back to the debt default of late 2001, and with much reason, but in order to really come to grips with the question of where Argentina went wrong, it is necessary to go back deep into the previous century. The 1930 coup, when Argentina parted company with the 1853 constitution for the first time, was spawned by the same serpent’s egg of world depression which hatched Nazism and for far too long Argentina went down the same road. The outside world still has not entirely forgotten the contrasting behaviour of Argentina and Brazil during the Second World War – whereas Brazil declared war on Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini as early as August, 1942, and sent an important expeditionary force (including tank regiments) to fight in Italy, Argentina maintained a neutrality distinctly tilting towards the Axis until almost the very end of the Third Reich (especially after the 1943 coup), subsequently harbouring war criminals.

Within this context the importance of the Foreign Ministry initiative to quash an anti-Semitic secret law dating back to 1938 should not be underestimated. There was nothing overtly anti-Semitic about Circular 11 from mid-1938 signed by then Foreign Minister José María Cantilo (subsequently sympathetic to the Allied cause) instructing consuls ”to deny visas to anybody leaving their country as an undesirable or as the result of expulsion, regardless of the cause of that expulsion” but in the context of 1938 this was effectively slamming the door on Jewish refugees from Europe. Thanks to the work of the Wallenberg Foundation, we know that this circular was not an isolated aberration because only last month the Foreign Ministry removed a plaque honouring 12 diplomats for saving Jewish lives during the Second World War – the dozen diplomats included Luis Yrigoyen (allegedly an illegitimate son of the great Radical leader) who, far from being an Argentine Wallenberg (the Swedish diplomat who saved hundreds of thosands of Jewish lives in wartime Hungary by extending them Swedish passports), regarded his excellent contacts with the Nazis as an end in themselves, giving his German friends to understand that Argentina could not care less when offered in 1943 the repatriation of 100 Argentine Jews as a goodwill gesture towards one of the more pro-Axis South American régimes.

Perhaps Argentina needs more than a bond swap to live down its history.

]]>http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/vicious-circular/feed/0Yesterday the Government abolished a harmful and racist orderhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/yesterday-government-abolished/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/yesterday-government-abolished/#commentsThu, 09 Jun 2005 03:00:00 +0000adminhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=2407Argentine President abolished a 1938 order by which Jews, persecuted by the Nazi Regime, were banned from entering the country.

President Néstor Kirchner abolished a 1938 confidential document which limited the entering of Jews and people persecuted by the Nazis into Argentina, yesterday.

He did so together with Foreign Minister, Rafael Bielsa, and Interior Minister, Aníbal Fernández, during a ceremony that took place at the Government House in Buenos Aires.

The confidential order, which was fostered by then Foreign Minister José María Cantilo and presently abolished after almost seventy years, denied visas to Jews and other people persecuted by Adolf Hitler’s regime.

Its abolishment was requested for years by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, an NGO founded in Argentina and with branches in Caracas, Jerusalem and New York.

The controversial resolution number 11, of 1938, was discovered in 1998 by Argentine researcher Beatriz Gurevich during her work for the Commission for Elucidating the Nazi Activities in Argentina (CEANA, in Spanish), an organization created in 1997 by former Chancellor Guido Di Tella, during the tenure of President Carlos Menem.

However, the investigator decided to quit the Commission when, after having reported her finding the authorities decided to file it once again and not to disclose its contains.

On thanking the Government for the abolishment of that resolution the Vicepresident of the Wallenberg Foundation, Natalio Wengrower, warned about ”the rising of new forms of all kinds of discrimination whose promoters are waiting in ambush for a turn in the development of history to instill their wicked plans.”

”We remind them that history does not go back,” he assured.

Translation: Nora Bellettieri

]]>http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/yesterday-government-abolished/feed/0Controversial secret law discriminatory of jews repealedhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/controversial-secret-law/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/education/diplomacy/argentina-75/controversial-secret-law/#commentsWed, 08 Jun 2005 03:00:00 +0000adminhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=2423It was already not in use. It denied entry to this country of citizens of that origin.

Even though he kept silent during the entire ceremony, President Néstor Kirchner yesterday decided to be present at the ceremony in which Minister of Foreign Affairs Rafael Bielsa repealed a controversial secret circular issued by his Ministry. Currently unapplied, but theoretically still in legal force since 1938, the directive tacitly denied a visa to citizens of Jewish origin, at the time when Nazi Germany began the Holocaust.

Yesterday’s activities were to take place in the offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Palacio San Martín. But, in a rapid gesture, Kirchner had it transferred to the Salón Sur of Government House. Thus, the President, Bielsa and the Minister of Interior Aníbal Fernández, presided over the ceremony together with Natalio Wengrower, Vice Chairman of the Wallenberg Foundation that spearheaded the demands of the repeal.

Secret Circular N° 11 was signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs José María Cantilo on June 12 1938. It instructed that ”apart from other regulations concerning the selection of travelers’ that came to this country and except for a specific order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consuls should deny a visa even as a tourist or passenger in transit to all persons who fundamentally were to be considered leaving or having left their country of origin as undesirable or expelled, whatever the reason of the expulsion”.

The circular was discovered in 1998 by researcher Beatriz Gurevich, who was very moved yesterday, alongside writer and journalist Uki Goñi. The woman found it ‘lost’ in the files of the Argentine Embassy in Stockholm, during her term on the Commission of Enquiry into the Activity of Nazism in Argentina, set up by former Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella.

Since then, as Wallenberg Foundation Director Gustavo Jalife pointed out to this paper, numerous requests were made for the circular’s repeal and for the withdrawal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building of a plaque that paid homage to twelve diplomats for their so-called solidary activities on behalf of Jews during the Second World War.

Last May 16, Bielsa signed Resolution 999 that led to the withdrawal of the plaque. Showing documents, Wallenberg Foundation proved that Luis H. Irigoyen, one of the diplomats honoured for his sojourn at the Embassy to Berlin, in 1943 ”showed himself uninterested in the destiny of one hundred Argentine Jews” which the regime of Adolf Hitler offered to repatriate to Argentina as a gesture of goodwill towards a country with which they maintained excellent relations.

Last week, Minister Fernández had committed himself to take steps before Kirchner towards the repeal of the circular. And yesterday Bielsa recalled the impediments that he found in the investigation of the episode: to start with, the original circular could not be found. ”I feel disappointed for not having done this a year ago and very moved for having done it today”, said the Minister.

Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa will sign the order to end a seven-decade old secret internal ministerial norm which tacitly restricted Jewish immigration. The ceremony will be held at the Foreign Ministry with Interior Minister Aníbal Fernández, Natalio Wengrower, vice-president of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, investigative journalist Uki Goñi (a former Herald staffer) and Beatriz Gurevich taking part. Gurevich found the only existing original copy of the secret order at the Argentine Embassy in Stockholm.

I am pleased to address you, and through you, all the members of your Institution, to express my appreciation for the praiseworthy task that you undertook that resulted in the removal of the controversial plaque which had been installed in the Argentine Foreign Ministry, which unjustly honoured an Argentine diplomat who had failed to uphold his unforsakable duty of safeguarding the most elementary human rights.

Please, extend this message to all those who, through their efforts and dedication have achieved justice through their coherent conduct.

Once again expressing my acknowledgement, I greet you with a warm and heartfelt